Nvidia's latest GeForce GTX 680 (aka Kepler) is the latest graphics card to come from the Santa Clara GPU powerhouse. Along with the new hardware, there's new buzzwords to talk about, like tesselation, GPU Boost, and GDDR5. The GeForce GTX 680 just won PCMag's latest Editor's Choice award for graphics cards. But what does that mean to you, the gaming PC enthusiast? It means that you could buy a new toy to brag about.

Needless to say, many of these graphics cards are going to be installed in pricey high-end systems. Most, if not all belong to what we like to call the $5K club, where the purchase price of the gaming system is $5,000 or more. If you want a multiple-card system, like a 3-way SLI overclocked gaming rig, your final price tag is likely to push north of $7,000 or even flirt with $10,000 if you add multiple SSDs to the mix. You could add the card to your existing gaming rig, but where's the fun in that? You really need a new, overclocked multicore gaming rig to take advantage of those 1,536 graphics cores, right?

That said, you can get a more moderately priced system from these system builders, Cyberpower has announced a base system with a single GTX 680 card starting at $1,199. Prices and frame rates will rise as you add dual (SLI) or triple (3-way SLI) cards to the mix. Be careful with your choices when configuring a system: Some motherboards will only support a single graphics card, and if you decide to add graphics cards later, you'll need to beef up the system's power supply at the start. I wouldn't plan for 3-way SLI without a 1,000-watt (or better) power supply preinstalled.

AVADirect is building the GTX 680 into its Gaming PC Core systems, using Intel Z68- and X79-based motherboards. Most systems will likely ship from AVADirect with Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, but Intel E5 Xeon workstation-class processors are also an option.

Cyberpower will offer the GTX 680 in systems ranging from its entry-level to its highest priced gaming rigs. Cyberpower's entire desktop gaming PC line can be equipped with the GTX 680, including the Gamer Infinity, Gamer Ultra, Gamer Xtreme, Zeus, and top of the line Fang III series.

Maingear is launching the GTX 680 in its Shift, F131, and X-Cube gaming rigs initally. “The Ultimate PC deserves the Ultimate GPU, and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 built in our desktops offer the best gaming experience that is the quietest and fastest card we have had in our desktops.” says said Wallace Santos, chief executive and founder of MAINGEAR. “This GPU solution offer gamers and PC enthusiasts with a top performing system whether they are looking for a single, dual or 3-way SLI setup.”

Other system builders offering the GeForce GTX 680 are Falcon Northwest, Digital Storm, Origin PC, iBuypower, V3 Gaming, Velocity Micro, and Geekbox. No doubt most of these are familiar names if you've followed PCMag's gaming PC reviews. If you'd rather DIY your gaming rig, you can also pickup a GeForce GTX 680 card for about $499 from the usual suspects like Asus, EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI, PNY, and Zotac.

Joel Santo Domingo is the Lead Analyst for the Desktops team at PC Magazine Labs. He joined PC Magazine in 2000, after 7 years of IT work for companies large and small. His background includes managing mobile, desktop and network infrastructure on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms. Joel is proof that you can escape the retail grind: he wore a yellow polo shirt early in his tech career. Along the way Joel earned a BA in English Literature and an MBA in Information Technology...
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